Urban Stay — Hotel in London

The location is absolutely brilliant, especially for London marathon weekend. We stayed at 19 St Mary at Hill for 3 nights during marathon weekend 2025. The marathon route literally goes right past the window. It’s such a shame that the apartment we stayed in (no.3) was in such a state of disrepair that it made our stay less enjoyable than it should have been. The photos look great but that doesn’t tell the full story. The property we were in was in tired and filthy condition, it hasn’t been shown much love in a number of years. I get the distinct feeling it gets a run round with a mop and the bins emptying before the next people arrive. The ensuite has a serious leak in the shower which is causing major problems with the floor tiles. When stepping on them you can see the water being squeezed up through the grout and that’s not all it has worked its way in to the bedroom laminate and door surround. These are visibly swollen to the point the threshold bar has come away and the door no longer fits properly inside the surround. I did try to inform the property of this but being a weekend there is absolutely zero contact with anyone. We couldn’t even use the other shower in the main bathroom as the door was missing! The kitchen was covered in a layer of grease and oil, everything was sticky to the touch. We purchased our own products to clean the place before preparing any food. The oven and hob were in desperate need of TLC but I wasn’t venturing there.

The only response I got from the company, which was a day or two after we checked out, was “we shall inform the cleaning team”. Very disappointing and clearly couldn’t care less. Once they have your money they make it almost impossible to speak to anyone about any issues, very clever business model I suppose as there’s no come back from customers. I just wish I had continued with the hotel I had...

The good: the location is great, lots of accessible transit, easy walking to lots of places, tons of food options. Beautiful view. The flat was very clean when we arrived and was cleaned nicely while we were here. It was not huge, but I had feared a tiny place, and it was roomier than expected. Urban Stay left a few little essentials (but see below in the bad) and a very cute bag with a few goodies for our cat and puppy. We did not have trouble with the wifi like others.

The medium: the street outside is noisy. Urban Stay can’t do anything about this, but be advised this would not be a good choice if you are a light sleeper. Especially in the summer as you need windows open to sleep.

The bad: although we were mostly left with supplies, it would have been nice to have a sponge to clean dishes and a few other small cleaning things (like a roll of paper towels and a broom). Agree with others that the furniture is all fine, but not great. Several of our chairs were slightly broken. The number of items is a bit stingy (for example, would have been nice to have more than 1 towel each, as a woman I like to have a body towel and a hair towel). I don’t expect to have AC, but as others have mentioned the large southern facing windows are nice for the view but it gets very very warm in the sunshine and certain of the flats have more limited ability to open windows (our windows only cracked open). We bought an extra fan and that improved it but think there should have been two provided in the flat (one for bedroom and one for living room).

Overall, I’d still recommend for what they are, short term...

Very friendly staff- fantastic maid service. Wonderful staff all round. We stayed in the shard view. In flat 4 and 7 for 2 months each. The flats were good but in the heat wave (very hot summer 2018 ) one fan is just not enough. Investing in air conditioning may be a suggestion - there is an air filter system. The windows are facing south it can get very stuffy in the flats. The flat is basic for a short stay - has everything you need (except for an oven glove). The bed is comfortable, but the sofas are not. For a short stay not a problem but after a few weeks we really noticed it. It is ok to lie on. Lots of cushions 👍 the flat interior is minimalistic with some nice decor. We would stay again but only for a short stay 3-10 days. The location is very good for tourists and inner city needs with major tube and train stations in less than 2-12min walking distance. There are a lot of small food shops in walking distances of 3-6min. A larger supermarket is near st Kathrine docks (Waitrose) 10-15min walk past Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the Docks or M&S is next to skyGarden 5min. Price wise you are paying for the location! Interior quality could be improved ie furnishing quality lacked (we were in a basic flat - not plush luxury easy to clean if you have a pet with you). The WiFi supplied is between flats. On the occasion we had to share bandwidth which would interfere...